The present invention relates to health care policy compliance and more particularly to an on-line software based system which stores health care policy documents for searching and access by qualified users, provides user self-tests, records and reports the test results to the user and to administration to insure compliance.
Personnel employed by health care related facilities, such as hospitals, home health care agencies, nursing homes, pharmacies, health maintenance organizations and the like, must follow an ever increasing number of detailed procedures, guidelines, rules, laws and/or regulations imposed by external agencies (government, regulatory and accrediting bodies) which are required for various medical and/or legal considerations. Policies are developed within institutions to guide their personnel in complying with these requirements. Because different personnel with different responsibilities in different departments are required to be familiar with multiple policies, large institutions are encountering increasing difficulty insuring that each individual is reviewing and comprehending the specific policies he must comply with.
For example, physicians in an emergency room are required by Federal law and regulations (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) to follow specific procedures for treating and/or transferring patients to other healthcare facilities. Nurses, on the other hand, may need to know policies regarding isolation procedures for patients with infectious diseases. Everyone at the hospital may have to know about requirements of the hospital""s disaster plan or regulations concerning nondiscrimination and OSHA requirements.
It is difficult for the hospital to know if all personnel have reviewed and adequately understand the policies appropriate for their particular responsibilities, department, rank, etc. Further, certain governmental agencies require that health care facilities report compliance by their personnel by verifying that their personnel have in fact reviewed and demonstrate an understanding of the necessary policies.
The present invention is an on-line, software based system designed to assist health care institutions to manage the burden of maintaining and disseminating policy information to the appropriate individuals employed in various capacities throughout the organization. The system functions as a centralized reference, making policy materials available to all personnel in an easily searchable and quickly accessible form. The system also restricts access to particular materials to qualified users and keeps track of which individuals have reviewed which policies and when. It can verify each user""s comprehension with self-administered tests. The test results can be summarized and reviewed by administrative personnel to determine and, if need be, report compliance statistics for individuals, groups or institution-wide or structure remedial training/education programs.
The present invention benefits an institution by increasing the quality of the policies themselves, increasing the staff""s level of understanding and familiarity with policies (and therefore, compliance with them), providing an integrated methodology for creating, approving, disseminating and maintaining policies, reducing litigation risks and expenses and reducing policy management and compliance costs in terms of both dollars and manpower resources. Forms utilized by the institution (consent, test requests, purchase orders, etc.) are also maintained on the system, eliminating the costs of printing, inventorying and distributing the forms throughout the institution. The institution is always assured that the most current version of these forms will be accessed by the staff.
In general, these objectives are achieved by the system of the invention by maintaining a central database containing policies and related documents accessible on the World Wide Web or via an intranet home page by staff members who identify themselves with an appropriate log-in identification code. The documents in the database are searchable by a variety of customized parameters, enabling quick and easy access to documents on particular topics.
The document management functions of the system make users"" access to policies much faster and easier than looking up policies in hard copy policy manuals. A user can quickly access the set of policies for which he is responsible, or the set of policies which meet the user""s search criteria. In addition, links and searching capabilities simplify getting access to all policies relevant to an issue. This helps to quickly focus the user""s attention on relevant information. The glossary and FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) features provide users with additional interpretation/clarification of policy language.
Users see only the current versions of policies. Policies which are no longer current are archived, and are accessible only by a separate, restricted archival search function.
Selected users can access policies from off-site locations, an especially important function for the on-call physicians and administrator. In the event of a disaster, for example, the hospital or emergency room receives victims of a train crash, an Administrator or physician could access a hospital""s emergency plan from his home or other remote location and immediately initiate appropriate response teams to treat the injured.
New or updated policies can be distributed by managers and accessed by users immediately. The costs and mistakes associated with distribution of hard copies and collection and/or destruction of obsolete policies are eliminated.
Current versions of forms are made readily available. The use of obsolete forms and the cost of maintaining a forms inventory are eliminated.
Management of the policies themselves is improved. The creation and revision of policies is streamlined. The authoring procedure helps administration establish and maintain institution wide standards for the technology and methodology used to create, maintain and organize policies. This improves consistency among policies, and assists the institution in adhering to policy content standards. Further, integration of policies with regulatory/accreditation standards is improved by the linking capability of the system.
Use of a search methodology incorporating expert knowledge and historical data improves the identification and handling of duplicate, overlapping or contradictory policies.
Automated management of the policy approval process organizes and accelerates the approval of policies. An individual whose approval is required on a policy before it is published is automatically notified, so that policy can be accessed for review. The system provides each approver with a list of policies awaiting approval, and it provides administrators with information on each policy""s approval status (i.e., which approvals have been obtained and which are still pending).
Automated archiving of outdated policies creates a historical record of policies in effect at any given time. In the event of litigation in which policy compliance is an issue, archived documents can be easily accessed for response to discovery requests. The ease and efficiency of the retrieval process provides substantial cost savings.
Policy compliance is improved by the system. The system is designed to increase the level of staff awareness and comprehension of an institution""s policies in several ways. A special feature enables each user to focus specifically on the policies for which he is responsible. Searching is set up to make it easy for a user to locate needed policy information, making it more likely that a user will actually refer to a policy for guidance.
Testing helps to increase policy familiarity and comprehension. A user can test his own understanding of particular policies, and test results can be stored for analysis. Results can be reported on an individual user basis to identify which policies a particular user understands and which policies required additional study. Results also can be reported on a policy basis to evaluate policies for clarity and understandability (consistently low scores by many users may indicate that a policy is not clear) and to identify policies for which additional training may be needed. The increase in the level of staff awareness and comprehension of the institution""s policies reduces exposure to fines and/or lawsuits resulting from employee policy non-compliance.
Institution administrators can track who has reviewed a document, who has taken a test on the contents of the policy and the test results. Reports can be generated to demonstrate who has viewed and/or tested the policies by location, department, date, range, employee status and other parameters which are customizable as required.
Upon entering the web site, a main page is displayed. The main page is customizable by the institution. For example, if certain news is to be disseminated, the designated site administrator can simply input the information into the system for display on the main page, which each user will see as the user enters the system.
The system utilizes standard web technologies to deliver policy information to qualified users. Microsoft Windows NT is one operating system which can be used for the HTTP and application server. However, other operating systems could be used. The system is designed to support a wide range of web browsers. Other web browser enhancements may also be incorporated into the system for extra features.
Database tables keep information on when a document was created, by whom it was created, when it was last modified and by whom, for auditing purposes. The system keeps track of all users who logged on to the system, the policies they have reviewed and when same were reviewed. The system can also report on the number of hits and the number of reviews per document.
For security purposes, access to documents may be limited or based on personnel status. Codes or xe2x80x9ctagsxe2x80x9d are inserted into the document to identify attributes and for formatting purposes.
It is, therefore, a prime object of the present invention to provide an on-line, software based, health care policy document maintenance, dissemination and compliance system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a system wherein all of the policies for an institution can be stored in a central database, accessible on the World Wide Web or via an intranet home page, by qualified users.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a system wherein the database is easily searched and the documents are readily accessible.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a system which keeps track of who has accessed which policies to insure that review of same, which may be mandated by regulating agencies, has actually occurred.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide such a system which is capable of assessing comprehension by having personnel who review a policy take a self-administered test, where the test results are stored and reported to designated administrators.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a computer system is provided which includes a database capable of storing health care policy documents for selected access by authorized users via the Internet or an intranet home page. It is also capable of testing the user and reporting of test results for user feedback and administrative compliance purposes. The system includes means for storing data representative of document characteristics, means for storing data representative of user attributes and means for storing criteria for matching user attributes with document characteristics. Means are provided for storing documents. Means are provided for identifying users qualified to access the database. Means are provided for selecting stored documents based on the stored document characteristics data. Means are provided for determining whether an identified user is qualified to access selected stored documents, based on said stored matching criteria, as are means for permitting the user access to the selected stored document, if qualified. Means are provided for providing a test for the qualified user, as are means for grading the test and for recording the test results.
The means for storing documents includes means for determining if a document includes the required attributes, means for determining if the document is a duplicate of a document already stored, means for checking to determine if a document complies with storage requirements, means for incorporating revisions into the documents, if required, and means for recording the document.
Means are provided for storing data indicating that a test is required for a selected document, as are means for storing the test.
The means for storing document characteristics data includes means for storing document categories, means for storing document attributes and means for storing document types. The stored document selecting means includes means for locating documents based on the stored document categories, the stored document attributes and the stored document types.
Means are provided for reporting the test results to the user. Means are also provided for identifying qualified administrative users and for reporting the test results to them. Also included are means for tabulating test results by category.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for storing health care policy documents at a central database for selected access by authorized users on the Internet or via an intranet home page, and for testing the user and reporting of test results for user feedback and administrative compliance purposes. The method includes the steps of storing data representative of document characteristics, storing data representative of user attributes, storing criteria for matching user attributes with document characteristics and storing the documents. Users qualified to access the database are identified. Stored documents are selected based on the stored document characteristics data. It is determined if an identified user is qualified to access selected stored documents, based on the stored matching criteria. The user is permitted access to the selected stored document, if qualified. A test is provided for the qualified user. The test is graded and the test results are recorded.
The step of storing the documents includes the steps of determining if a document includes the required attributes, determining if the document is a duplicate of a document already stored, checking to determine if a document complies with storage requirements, incorporating revisions into the document, if required, and recording the document in the database.
The method further includes the steps of storing data indicating that a test is required for a selected document and storing the test.
The step of storing document characteristics data includes the steps of storing document categories, storing document attributes and storing document types. The step of selecting stored documents includes the step of locating documents based on the stored document categories, the stored document attributes and the stored document types.
The method further includes the step of reporting the test results to the user.
The method further includes the step of identifying qualified administrative users and reporting the test results to the qualified administrative users.
The method further includes the step of tabulating test results by category.